Wednesday, January 06, 2010

The Transatlantic Accent

Transatlantic accent � Abagond: "The Transatlantic accent, also called a Mid-Atlantic accent, is a way of speaking English that is halfway between American and British. It makes you sound like you have a good education but no one can tell quite where you are from. You hear it in old Hollywood films from the 1930s and 1940s. It is the accent of Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, William F Buckley and (at least in some films) God."

I'm going to work on developing one.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just listen to Jackie; that'll give you a perfect example of what not to sound like.

Just kidding.

Jeff

Cap'n Bob said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Cap'n Bob said...

You sound like Cary Grant? Maybe you'd better work on something more realistic, like Junior Samples.

mybillcrider said...

Junior was my voice coach for several years back in the early '60s.

S.W.B. said...


For SOME LIKE IT HOT, Tony Curtis explained in interviews that he based the 'millionare' on what he thought was his way of doing the voice like Carey Grant.
(Cary Grant responded "I dewn't tawk like thet..."


I found a biography on actors and old movies and the thought was that Katherine Hepburn had been to finishing school, and picked up such an accent and so it was never just from some region or from her childhood upbringing.

The film HUDSUCKER PROXY certainly has Jennifer Jason Lee with her take on a Hepburn type of accent...